Police arrest suspected Enugu killers with video clip

•I’m not against the Fulani, says Fayose
• Herdsmen plead with gov to unban grazing
•APC sympathises with Ekiti community over attack

Exaclty one month after the midnight attack on Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Council of Enugu State by persons believed to be Fulani herdsmen, the police high command says it has arrested five suspects in connection with the incident, which claimed about 50 lives.

Detectives with the Inspector General of Police’s (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), acting on credible intelligence, swooped on the suspected Nimbo killers.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole in a statement yesterday in Abuja, gave their names as Mohammed Zurai, Ciroma Musa, Sale Adamu, Suleiman Laute and Haruna Laute, adding that a Gionee L88 mobile phone with memory card containing the video recording of the mayhem was recovered from them.

The statement added that the team also busted a three-man syndicate of bank robbers and kidnappers, including Gogo Daniel Ume, Ikado Michael and Ifeanyi Kalu which has been terrorising Rivers, Imo and Enugu states.

It recovered arms, ammunition, dynamites and rifle servicing tools from them.
“Items recovered from them include three AK-47 rifles; one LAR rifle; 310 rounds of live ammunition; 12 rifle magazines; rifle servicing tools; cache of dynamite explosive; one Toyota Highlander Jeep; one Toyota Venza jeep and one Ford Edge Jeep.

Also in Kaduna, the IRT anti-kidnapping operations last month arrested Babangida Ibrahim; Idris Abubakar and Idris Mai Anguwa for allegedly involved in abduction and robbery, assorted weapons were also recovered from them.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said he has nothing against the Fulani people or any other tribe in the country, stressing that he is not an ethnic jingoist bent on causing confusion in the country.

He spoke yesterday in Lagos at the funeral of Madam Violet Oluremilekun Philips-George, the mother of a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor added that his call for the Federal Government to stem the rising tide of herdsmen’s attacks on communities across the country was borne out of the need for national cohesion, unity and peace.

However, the herdsmen appealed to Fayose to lift the ban on grazing in the state, exonerating themselves of any complicity in the attack on Oke Ako community in Ikole Local Council of the state last Friday where two people were killed.

The Seriki of the Fulanis, Alhaji Mahmood Ahmadu, who spoke yesterday in Ado Ekiti, decried the killing, appealing to the governor to allow grazing to save the cattle business of more than 100,000 of his members across the state.

Fayose, had during his visit to the affected community Government on Monday, announced that every cattle dealer in the state must own a ranch, ordering the villagers to arrest any cattle sighted within their localities or farmlands.
Ahmadu lamented that his members had vacated their residences and property in Oke-Ako, Irele and Ipao Ekiti as a result of the order.

Also yesterday, the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) commiserated with members of Oke-Ako community over the raid that also left several people wounded.

The state Deputy Chairman, Mrs. Kemi Olaleye who led members of the State Working Committee on a condolence visit to the palace of the regent yesterday, conveyed the party’s condolences to the community.

In a statement yesterday by the state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in Ado-Ekiti, the party condemned the mayhem.